Monday, March 19, 2012

From the civil rights struggle in the United States to the crematoria of
Auschwitz-Birkenau, there are momentous stories everywhere. But only
some survive to become history.

Lamont Williams is a black man
from the Bronx trying to return to a normal life after serving a
six-year prison term for a crime for which he was wrongly convicted.
Historian Adam Zignelik is an untenured Columbia professor whose career
and long-term relationship are falling apart. When Lamont Williams
strikes up an unlikely friendship with a patient at the hospital where
he works as a janitor, he learns about the Sonderkommando--prisoners
forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria of the Nazi
extermination camps. Meanwhile, Adam pursues a promising research topic
suggested by a World War II veteran, a topic that might just save him
professionally and even personally. When the lives of these two men
intersect, history comes to life in ways neither of them could have
foreseen.

I have to say that I was ultimately disappointed in The Street Sweeper. I started out by loving it as it opened with an amazingly
descriptive scene set in Harlem. Since I love New York and recently
stayed in Harlem, it really appealed to me. But unfortunately, that
quickly changed.

I stayed enraptured with the story of Lamont
Williams as he seemed like a very realistic character, struggling
through life and just trying to get by while looking for his long lost
daughter. He seemed like a very relatable character but not much of the
book seemed devoted to him or the characters related to him.

The main focus was on Adam Zignelik, an untenured
Columbia professor. While I could sympathize with his emotional side,
though it was very downplayed, I did not appreciated how much detail the
author provided on his psyche. At times his ex girlfriend would
"whisper" at him - which was really just him talking in his head but was
written in a confusing way.

The novel also
went into tangents and far too much detail on historical aspects, which
might be interesting to some, but ultimately lost me. The Street Sweeper was heavy in thoughts and memories rather than plot, especially regarding the details of the Holocaust. I felt it too personal a topic was being elaborated on at times, almost lecturing, especially with the repetitive nature of some of the themes, and combined with the narrative instead of action it seemed to lose me.

Unfortunately what could have
been an intriguing tale of two New Yorkers ended up being a disappointment for me.